Tax back from Paris?

TPF may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others

#31
pyrexia said:
It's supposed to take 6-8 weeks... I'm approaching the end of my 7th week of waiting and I still haven't seen anything yet though.
Click to expand...

It should turn up eventually. Took 3 months for me, once. Btw, did you post the forms yourself or did the Heathrow people take them away and do it for you? Whenever they took away my forms (no experience with H, but for other companies, e.g. Premier), saying they would post them, most of the time I never got the refunds :sad:
 
#32
Roxane said:
It should turn up eventually. Took 3 months for me, once. Btw, did you post the forms yourself or did the Heathrow people take them away and do it for you? Whenever they took away my forms (no experience with H, but for other companies, e.g. Premier), saying they would post them, most of the time I never got the refunds :sad:
Click to expand...

Oh sh!t, this is exactly what they did. I had a whole bunch of receipts, from both London and Paris, and I just handed the whole bunch to the guy. I remembered the LV and the H SA's in Paris telling me that I had to get it stamped, and then affix an extra stamp cos the mail was going from London back to Paris but when I asked the officer he gave me this face and said, "I know what I'm doing" so I left it at that. He even threw away the envelopes! Except for the H ones, which I saw him staple to the forms.

Grrrrrr. I'm glad I've already saved money from the exchange rate... but I think next time I'll try not to fly out of Heathrow.
 
#33
Pyrexia, Roxane, same thing happened to me!!!! I have yet to receive my refund and its been 11 months. I flew out of Heathrow. Guy took all my receipts and gave me back all my envelopes. Frustrating. I guess I am not getting anything back?? Dont know how I can make claims on some stuff because I paid cash on a lot of the items and a combo of cash/card on the H items i bought. He took all my receipts!
 
#34
^^^ I don't think there is anything that can be done. I just told myself that in future, I would separate the ones that need to be sent back and the ones that are meant for instant cash refund and insist that they stamp and return those that require posting and do so myself. They can hardly refuse, since the forms do not belong to them anyway.
 
#36
My Serendipity said:
Pyrexia, Roxane, same thing happened to me!!!! I have yet to receive my refund and its been 11 months. I flew out of Heathrow. Guy took all my receipts and gave me back all my envelopes. Frustrating. I guess I am not getting anything back?? Dont know how I can make claims on some stuff because I paid cash on a lot of the items and a combo of cash/card on the H items i bought. He took all my receipts!
Click to expand...

Goodness, 11 months?! That's an awfully long time.
I don't have any of my H receipts either - I know there was supposed to be a piece that is for my keeping but the guy insisted that he was to keep all.
Argh. I don't understand why it doesn't get refunded - it's not THEIR money anyway!
 
#37
Roxane said:
^^^ I don't think there is anything that can be done. I just told myself that in future, I would separate the ones that need to be sent back and the ones that are meant for instant cash refund and insist that they stamp and return those that require posting and do so myself. They can hardly refuse, since the forms do not belong to them anyway.
Click to expand...

I'll have to do this in future too. It was my first time dealing with Heathrow customs, so I naively believed that the officer knew best. Do you know if there is a limit to the amount of cash you can receive in refunds at the airport?
 
#39
It was my 2nd time to fly out of London but 1st time I did not file for a refund at all because didn't know about refunds. The second time, took a tour of Europe and did some shopping in Paris and London. I dont mind waiting several months as long as I get the refund... but NOTHING! :crybaby:

In some stores you can choose to get the tax back in cash (at the airport GST counter, of course) but if my memory serves me right Chanel and H only does refund through your credit card. My SO was in Paris 2 weeks ago and he bought me a Kelly (yahoo!!!) and he tried to request to get the refund back in cash. My SA said they "don't do that at Hermes."
 
#40
pyrexia said:
I'll have to do this in future too. It was my first time dealing with Heathrow customs, so I naively believed that the officer knew best. Do you know if there is a limit to the amount of cash you can receive in refunds at the airport?
Click to expand...

I don't know of any limit on cash refunds, as long as the merchant provides this as an option. I received a few thousand EUR refund in cash from Milan airport less than 2 years ago, so it is definitely possible.

The problem has nothing to do with the amount of cash refund, but that some merchants, e.g. Hermes, prefer to do their own refunds, or they specify refunds by credit cards / bank transfer only, so these require the tax refund forms to be posted back to them directly or to their tax refund processing company.

Btw, those folks at Heathrow Global Refund desk are not customs officers, just employees of Global.
 
Last edited:
#41
oh no... think that is going to happen to me.

My first trip in Europe was in May 2009, there are some qualify for instant refund - 5 days which I already recieved. The rest, they mentioned is 4 weeks, up to now still no sign. About 350Euro.

This time in May, only one invoice qualify for instant refund. 1200Euro has to be wait. Except for Hermes, which I post myself but I did not affix additional stamp (both time out from heathrow), the rest of the 650 Euro forms were with the officers! I regret, I should have ask for cash instantly or ask them to give me back the stamped form so that i can post out personally.

Yes, I agree that they can be very rude.
 
#42
Wow, ladies, sorry to hear you had such problems with the tax refunds! I never let anyone do anything for me LOL! I posted the envelopes myself at the airport. I have done this at Amsterdam, Lisbon and Venice airports that I can recall and with two different companies. The longest I have ever waited, was for the Canadian tax refund. That took about 3-4 months. When I took my trip there in 2004, my major purchase had no tax charged at the store, but my other purchases need to go thru the refund process. Make sure you make copies of everything! I realize that it is pretty hard to do this when traveling in EU prior to going to the airport, but the hotel should be able to do this or just find a store like a Kinkos that you can pay to copy at. If you don't have copies, there will be no future recourse. You also need to make sure that the store where you are making the purchase fills out the paperwork properly. It may appear that you are being crude and obnoxious, but sometimes the SA does not know how to do this and you will never get the refund.
 
#43
pyrexia said:
Oh dear lordy. I did my detaxe at Heathrow cos that was my last stop. I seriously hope it doesn't mean mine will take longer than that!
Click to expand...

Pyrexia I was just going to ask about Heathrow. We will be flying into France but flying out of London so my detaxe for France can be stamped in London? Also is there a detaxe for purchases made in London? Thank you.

Oh wow I just read everyone's horror story. I will definitely be making an effort to return from London to fly out of Paris!!! Kinkos here I come!!
 
Last edited:
#44
^^^ Your detaxe for France can only be stamped when leaving the EU, which, in your case, is from Heathrow. And yes, most London shops offer tax refunds for purchases above a certain minimum.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top